The coming Rand Paul-Ted Cruz brawl

The Senate may only be big enough for one Tea Party leader

BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD

Ted Cruz is off to a fast start. After just six weeks in the Senate, he’s already managed to earn a rare bipartisan condemnation for stealing the show at Chuck Hagel’s confirmation hearings in a performance that got him compared to Joseph McCarthy and profiled by half the major media organizations the country.

All in a day’s work for the Tea Party movement’s new darling, who’s stepped into a newly created void. Jim DeMint, Allen West and Joe Walsh are out. Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin have lost their luster. And Marco Rubio is getting a taste for compromising on immigration. Cruz is only too happy to step up and take their place.

The National Review notes that “Cruz is rapidly becoming one of the most public faces of the movement,” a status he had earned even before even getting elected. Last summer, he was feted in a massive arena-filling, Glenn Beck-headlined, Freedomworks-sponsored rally for his election in Dallas. “There is a great awakening that is sweeping this state, that is sweeping this country,” Cruz told the assembled masses. “New leaders who will stand and fight for liberty.”

New leaders like Cruz, perhaps. The Harvard-educated hispanic lawyer has already earned plenty of calls to follow the Obama playbook and run for the presidency in 2016. And, also like Obama, questions about his eligibility for the White House (Cruz was born in Canada to American parents).

Even as the Tea Party movement per se may be waning, the activists remain and they will need a voice in Washington. The rapid ascent of the well-spoken Cruz has pleased many conservative activists hungry for more. “We salute you, Senator Cruz, and we’re calling for backup,” a much-shared RedState post read.